Dispensers for feeding solder to the tips of soldering irons have been known and used in the past. Solder dispensers for pencil-type soldering irons are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,211,355, 3,252,645 and 3,531,038. The first two of these patents disclose the use of a pivotally mounted solder dispenser which is cumbersome to use and awkward to position to properly feed wire solder to the tip of a pencil-type soldering iron. Moreover, the solder supply for each of the solder dispensing devices of the first two patents is remote from the device itself, requiring one hand to feed solder to the device while holding the soldering iron in the other hand during a soldering operation. In the third patent mentioned above, the solder dispenser is complicated in construction and difficult to manipulate and control. It also suffers from the fact that the solder supply is remote from the dispenser itself.
Solder dispensers have also been provided for other types of soldering irons, such as soldering guns. Disclosures in this category include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,432,428, 2,797,293, 3,097,286, 3,707,258 and 4,247,137. A solder dispenser for a very early type soldering iron is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,083,363. In the latter patent, the soldering dispenser is pivotally mounted on the soldering iron and is made so that the feeding of solder to the heated tip of the soldering iron is awkward and difficult to control.
Because of the above-described drawbacks of solder dispensers which have previously been known and used, a need has arisen for improvements in such dispensers, especially solder dispensers for pencil-type soldering irons which conventionally permit one hand soldering operations.